Misadventures: The Windows to the Soul
by My Thoughts and Opinions
Summary: When love is doubted, there's only one thing to do: have a staring contest and show them that you care through it.


**Hello, fellow fanfic readers 'n' writers! I will admit, this is a sort of stolen idea, mixed with a cliché idea, but in my defence there is an original twist to it, so I can't really be slapped up for theft or piracy or anything like that. Have fun!**

**Also, please go and read my latest 'Adventures' story, or some things will require more cells of your cerebral cortex to function to understand what is going on. Not trying to market the story. Really, I'm not.**

**DISCLAIMER: You know how you can do your favourite things for hours and not get bored of them? Disclaimers are not like those things. Telling someone over and over that you don't own any rights to this show gets immensely tedious very quickly.**

Stefan was just chilling in his brother's house after his last bit of activity when Rere came up to him with tears in her eyes. **[Lovely.]**

"Let me guess," he remarked upon seeing her. "Pouri?" She nodded. "What'll it take for this guy to get it into his thick skull that you don't, and won't, love him?" **[I thought Counting Sheep would have put that firmly in his mind by now.]**

"Oh, he - he's got it into his head. Now - now he's trying to - to make me doubt - " she stopped to swallow. "My relationship with - with him." **[Unbelievable.]**

"Him as in The Expert, right," Stefan clarified for himself. "But why? You love him, and you know he loves you. What's the issue?"

"Now, I'm - I'm not sure he does." **[All in favour of ki - um, kissing Pouri with the Kiss of De - ... Divine, uh, Removal, say 'aye'.]**

Those words hit Stefan like a big boulder. "No. He wouldn't." The girl nodded. "What an absolute, genuine, certified, legally authorised, git. What'd he say?" **[For those of you unfamiliar with that term, ... please research it. It's not always my job to tell you what I have in my tales. Plus, we need to move on quickly. Sorry.]**

* * *

Rere was skipping along, ebullient as ever, for she was going to see her favourite pup in the world. She always enjoyed being in his company, and his brother's too.

That good mood evaporated when she ran into her least favourite pup in the world. **[That is what happens, technically. Psychologically. And everything else like that.]**

"Get out of my face now, Pouri."

"Or you'll do what?" he countered.

"D'you want a repeat? I heard a lovely one for you - "

"That won't be necessary." He shuddered at the, still fresh, memory. **[Glad to see you remember, Pouri. Now I don't have to do that again.]** "Oh hey, speaking of faces..."

"What about them." It was a question, but it was asked so dully that it couldn't warrant a question mark. **[Sounds suspiciously like me.]**

"Why do you think he loves you? He clearly doesn't show it," Pouri said.

"What do you mean? Of course he does," she returned. "You just never see it because you're too wrapped up in yourself and your own affairs to care." **[She's not wrong.]**

"Look at this, then." He produced a tablet, likely "borrowed" from someone, with a piece of information on it. "Here, it says that the less someone expresses feelings with their face, the less likely they are to have them." **[He's also not wrong. That usually is the general consensus.]**

Rere kept her face nonplussed, but the seed of doubt was there.

"I mean, I guess I could be wrong. I haven't been back there since, so I don't know how he's been acting, but there you have it. How can you be so sure that he actually cares for you?" He promptly left.

Rere simply stood there, taking in the information. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed likely. **[Guilty of overthinking.]**

"What if he doesn't really love me like I love him?"

* * *

"That's underhanded. I knew he was one for that, from what I've seen from him, but that seems really low, even for him." **[If underhanded exists, then overhand does too, right? And it means the opposite, right? Right?]**

"I know, but it might be true..." Her tears hadn't subsided, but her voice had returned, somewhat, to normal.

Just then, The Expert stepped into view.

"How - " his brother proceeded to ask.

"Long enough to know what's going on," he responded. **[Speech prediction. Yay!]**

"So, thirty seconds?" Stefan laughed after his own bad joke, before stopping and beginning again. "But seriously, can you help her?" **[I mean, he is The Expert. You'd assume so.]**

The Expert nodded. "Rererangi, let's have a staring contest." **[What?]**

"Oh, uh, okay." He sat down, and she as well, facing each other. Stefan excused himself.

The Expert gently wiped away the tears on his Rere's face. "Are you ready?" he asked softly. She nodded, not fully sure where this was going. **[Neither am I, to be honest.]**

"Okay. Go."

Immediately she locked eyes with him and forced her eyes to stay open. She stared straight down his blue eyes' pupils, and soon she decided to search the hypothetical depths down them.

That's when she saw what he wanted her to see: in his right eye, she noticed all the feelings, all the emotions that he hid from reaching his face. All the happiness and comfort he experienced around her. All the desire to help her through anything she might have a struggle with. All the yearning to keep her safe. **[Whoa.]**

But in his left, she saw the worry he had that he'd never be able to protect her forever. The longing he had that she'd never leave him because he wasn't good enough. The sheer fright of his envisioning of his life without her in it. The absolute hatred he had for himself when he got himself hurt the second time, allegedly making her stay by him when she could've been doing something else. **[Whoa.]**

But above all, behind every one of these things, she saw the untainted love he harboured for her. **[Double whoa.]**

She started to cry at that. The tears welled up in her eyes, making her blink but she didn't care. She smiled through the streams now running down her face and, looking at him, how could she not.

She kissed him. **[LET'S GO! Apologies to headphone users.]**

**Und ve are done! I don't know what else I could've made happen on this one, especially at the end, but hey. Could still be good. Hope you enjoyed this little thing!**

**Till next time, ciao!**


End file.
